Countywide : Group Aids the Needy of Tijuana

Each weekend, a caravan leaves Orange County for a destitute little river community in the foothills of Tijuana.

The caravan is usually loaded with building materials, blankets or supplies. On Sunday, the little group--named Corazon (heart)--also brought hundreds of bags of groceries.

For 20 years, the nonprofit countywide group, with members of various ages and religious affiliations, has provided food and shelter for indigent families in Tijuana.

This year, Corazon members have built 12 houses, bringing their total to more than 100 in the town. Member John Ahern said the group looks for the family in greatest need.

“Usually we build for a single mom with a lot of kids,” Ahern said. “The people in the community know who’s in bad shape.”

Most of the houses are built on small parcels of land donated by the Mexican government. The homes are completed in one day at an average cost of $2,400, all of which is raised through donations. Although the structures are substandard by U.S. standards, there is a long waiting list.

“It’s the best house on the block when we are finished,” Ahern said.

The group was formed after Jennie Castillon, now 66, of Garden Grove dreamed that “The Lord was going to use me far away from home and I was going to use my Spanish,” she said.

On one of her trips to Tijuana, she met Mark Vanni. Vanni was in his 20s and had contracted leukemia. He had made many pleasure trips to Mexico and recognized the needs of the people living in the Tijuana foothills.

Vanni and friend Mike Echolds began going to Tijuana to repair the poorly constructed cardboard shacks of the river people. The two young men took bits and pieces of wood and other supplies and helped reconstruct the homes.

Castillon and the two men began working together to provide food, blankets and shelter to the community. Vanni died shortly thereafter, but his work has been carried on.

Corazon has built a medical center in Tijuana which several American doctors visit weekly. The group also has sponsored schooling for some of the people.

“We sponsored a girl who went to beauty college,” Castillon said. The girl eventually opened her own beauty school, and Castillon watched her first class graduate.

“It’s very rewarding, exciting work,” she said.

Castillon said she has traveled all over the world and has had private audiences with Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa. She will be going to India again this year with Mother Teresa to work in a leper colony.